How To Start A Podcast – Feeds and Distribution

So you bought all the equipment, you figured out how to use it and record an MP3 of your first episode. Here are various methods to share your podcast with the world.

iTunes
Well first lets start at the most popular way, iTunes. The only reason it’s called podcasting is because of the iPod and iTunes. Many people can discover your show through it and iTunes sometimes will even help promote you. iTunes also allows users to subscribe so that every new episode will automatically be downloaded for the user.

There are two ways to get your podcast on iTunes one is through a dedicated podcast host such as Lybsin, Castmate.FM, or SoundCloud. The advantage to this method is they have unlimited bandwidth and are responsible for a lot of the technical stuff such as backups and feed setup. The disadvantage is while your podcast is growing and has barely any audience it can cost $5-$15 per month.

A more advanced and professional method to getting on iTunes would be to have your own website with a podcast plugin implemented. A good example of this would be to use WordPress with the powerpress plugin on your own domain and use either the web host or Amazon S3. The disadvantage to this method is you do not get unlimited bandwidth so as your podcast grows you might need to either pay more or switch your host to a dedicated podcast host. However it will still look more professional and by that point you will probably be making money from your podcast therfor this is the method we recommend.

Youtube
To get your podcast on iTunes you need to make your audio file into a video file by overlaying an image over it in a video editor. The advantage to having your podcast on iTunes is you can potentially reach a wider audience. The disadvantage is you lose some control so if you were charging people for your podcast there is no way to implement it on iTunes. Also users can not download the mp3 on youtube so they will need to be online to play it.

RSS
Every podcast should have an RSS feed setup for all the non apple users, for those that do not have iTunes but still listen to podcasts via third party program. Even if you use youtube you should still have this so that listeners can download the episode to play on mp3 players, cars and such.

What We Do?
All of it, in our minds we want every episode out there and not charge a premium, we want to appeal to the widest audience possible and make it available in every way we can, but that’s just our opinion many people have it on iTunes and leave it at that.

About the Author

Ari Mannis is a Stand Up Comedian living in Los Angeles, CA. He has been featured on MTV, Sirius XM, and more.